A BLISTERING attack on Greater Manchester Police's race relations policies has been launched by the forces Black and Asian officers association.

A BLISTERING attack on Greater Manchester Police's race relations policies has been launched by the forces Black and Asian officers association. In a document circulating within the GMP they say the GMP team responsible for recruiting more ethnic minority officers should be disbanded because it has failed. In its place they want a new more powerful unit headed by a senior officer with the status of GMP's race advisor, Dr Brian Holland. The association is particularly concerned over what it describes as a failure to retain newly recruited Asian or black officers and the lack of promotion of ethnic minority officers through the ranks to senior posts. It says the Positive Action Team (PAT), responsible for bringing more Asian and black officers into the force lacks support and leadership and should be disbanded. The document claims: "Relationships with (the PAT and police) divisions has ben less than satisfactory due to a conflict of priorities and responsibilities." It adds that the team and the GMP personnel department: "Have consistently overlooked retention and progression of police staff" and, "failed to appoint (ethnic minority) applicants to senior grades and also failed to support the progression of (ethnic minority) staff to senior posts." In general the document warns that "significant barriers" continue to exist to Asian and black recruitment in Greater Manchester. Adding: "These barriers include perceived racism extended throughout the organisation, institutional and individual behaviour that affects our policies, practice and quality of service delivery." It says the negative image of the police in Asian and black communities has been deepened by the Secret Policeman TV exposure of violently racist white officers. Last month the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality Trevor Phillips warned that GMP could be prosecuted for a failure to implement adequate policies.